


Second Time's the Charm

by podsandpuppies



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 02:31:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19898422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/podsandpuppies/pseuds/podsandpuppies
Summary: A soulmark appears on someone's birthday the year they're destined to fall in love with their soulmate. When Georgi's mark appears he assumes it's his new girlfriend, Anya. That is, until she breaks up with him, at least. When Mari's mark appears, she has no idea who it might be, but quietly embraces the idea of meeting her soulmate soon.





	Second Time's the Charm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rodinia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/gifts).



> I actually found this in my drafts as a half-completed treat from last year's exchange. When I saw you'd still requested the pairing for this year, I took it as an opportunity to finish. I hope you enjoy!

Three weeks after he started dating Anya, on his birthday, Georgi Popovitch’s soul mark bloomed on his skin and he was absolutely delighted. In the next year, he would fall in love with his soulmate. He wasn’t in love with Anya yet, but he knew he could fall in love with her – would fall in love with her. He was delighted to have a woman so strong and so gorgeous as his soulmate. He rushed to tell her and she was just as delighted at the news as he was.

Four months later, the day after the birthday party he planned for her, she dumped him out of the blue.

“Why?” he asked her, not even attempting to hide the tears streaming down his face. “We’re soulmates!”

“Because, Georgi, it’s been four months and I’m not in love with you. And I’m not going to fall in love. We’re not soulmates.”

With that, she stood up from where she was seated and walked out the door. Georgi was left staring down at the mark on his forearm with tears in his eyes.

  


It took all of a week before Georgi pulled himself out of a miserable stupor enough to decide to use his pain to craft the next year’s programs. He arrived at the rink, told Yakov that his theme for the next year was heartbreak, and reached into himself to seize his sadness and his anger and his love for classical ballet to start forming the basics of the choreography for his programs.

By the beginning of the skating season, his routines were perfected and his pain had faded into the background, no longer feeling like anything more than a tool he reached for to fuel the story. After his first competition he was filled with nothing but joy at his scores and he realized that he was over Anya. He could still easily drag up the memory of how much it hurt to lose the woman he thought was his soulmate, but that hurt no longer asserted itself.

That night as he lay in bed reflecting, he remembered that sometime in the next few months he was supposed to find his soulmate and fall in love. His stomach swooped with joy. He had been so caught up in Anya that he had forgotten. He still had a soulmate out there and it was time to open himself up to love.

***

When Mari Katsuki found her soulmark while bathing on the morning of her 30th birthday, she smiled to herself and decided not to tell anyone. She didn’t mind the idea of falling in love with someone, but it was nobody’s business but hers. Her friends and family had stopped asking if she’d gotten her soulmark after she’d lost her temper two years ago, and given that the mark was on her butt nobody would see it unless they were in the public baths with her.

She kept quiet about her soulmark for two months. Then her brother came home and she couldn’t help but laugh when she saw that he’d gotten a mark since his last birthday too. His was much more visible on the back of his neck and she saw it as soon as he took off his coat. Then she had to explain because she didn’t want him to think she was being mean.

“Looks like both of us are falling in love this year. Mom and Dad will be pleased.”

“What do you mean?”

“It looks like we both got soulmarks this year. Yours is cute.”

Yuuri’s eyes widened. “Really? How come nobody told me?”

“How come you didn’t tell us? Anyway, nobody knows about mine. I don’t want anybody to make a big deal when I haven’t even met the person yet.”

“I wish I could avoid people making a big deal out of mine too,” Yuuri muttered. “But everyone can see it.”

Mari patted him on the shoulder. “Sorry man. I’m sure everyone around here will relax about it in another week.”

  


As it turned out, just as everyone was getting used to Yuuri’s soulmark, Victor arrived, also with a soulmark and clearly without a partner. Mari felt bad about all the speculation and gossip surrounding the pair but she was glad the attention was firmly off of her. She was able to enjoy drooling over musicians and skaters alike in peace while waiting to meet the right person.

Everywhere she went, she kept a quiet eye out for anyone who had a draw. She knew it didn’t always happen, but she’d heard that soulmates usually could tell that something just felt right if they were strangers before falling in love. She even asked Yuuri to introduce her to skaters at competitions, even though that was admittedly less about trying to find her soulmate and more about having a bit of fun at the events. But she wasn’t about to tell her brother that.

  


When they arrived in Russia and headed for the hotel, she turned to Yuuri and said, “You’ll introduce me to some of the other skaters right?” and when he’d hesitated, she continued. “You never know; you might be introducing me to my soulmate!”

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, she forgot in that moment that not only was Victor in the car, but he spoke enough Japanese to follow their conversation and he hadn’t known about her soulmark before.

“Mari!” he said. “You’re meeting your soulmate this year too? Yuuri, we _have_ to help her!”

  


Victor’s version of helping turned out to be introducing her to every single member of the Russian team who had come to the competition, either to skate or to watch. She got nothing more than the barest hello from the ones who were competing, but struck up polite conversations with the ones who weren’t. They weren’t the sort of people she’d want to hook up with, but they were nice enough. She and Minako sat with them during the competition and she got to learn a bit more about the Russian skaters.

“That’s Georgi.” One of the junior girls pointed to a man in elaborate makeup who was getting ready to skate. “He’s still hung up on his ex, but he’s nice enough.”

Mari looked at him in surprise. Hung up on his ex or not, he was hot. She thought for a moment and realized that she’d met him the day before and thought the same thing. It was surprising because she usually went for blonds, but she couldn’t deny that the way the costume fit was quite flattering. She made a mental note to talk to him again if she could.

When he finished the short program she said to the girl, “I see what you mean about being hung up.”

She nodded. “I feel kinda bad for him. He got his soulmark so he thought his new girlfriend was his soulmate. He found out he was wrong when she dumped him a few months later.”

“Ouch,” Mari said. “I guess he hasn’t met his real soulmate then?”

The girl shook her head. “And I don’t know how he’s going to, skating these programs about his ex.”

Mari raised her eyebrows. She was definitely going to talk to this guy. He probably wasn’t her soulmate. After all, there were millions of people who fell in love with their soulmate every year. But it was worth looking into, and he was attractive.

  


Her plans to talk to Georgi got put on hold when there was an emergency with Makkachin back home. Victor left and Mari stayed by Yuuri’s side as much as she could. She cheered him on in the stands during the competition and once it was all over she helped him get to the airport. He had changed his flight back, but Mari decided to stay in Russia another day as they’d originally planned. That was when she took her chance and tried to find Georgi. She expected it to be difficult since she didn’t know anyone well who might know him or where he was.

As it turned out, though, she got lucky and found him right away. They nearly walked into each other as soon as she got to the hotel.

***

Georgi didn’t know why Victor, after months of not seeing him, was insisting on introducing a Japanese woman who he quickly learned was Yuuri’s sister. She was cute, but he was trying to get to the practice session. Now that Victor wasn’t skating, he was ready to be the winner of the grand prix, and to do that he had to do well in the qualifiers. He had to focus. He wouldn’t mind talking to her later, but in that moment he couldn’t. And so he said a polite “Hello, nice to meet you,” to the woman before heading off to put on his skates. He quickly put her and everything else out of his mind and forgot everything except the competition.

A few days later as he was leaving for dinner the night after the free skate, he ran into her again and he didn’t know how he’d managed to forget about her. She was even cuter than he’d realized before.

He smiled at her. He couldn’t help it. “Hi,” he said. “Victor introduced us, right? My name is Georgi.”

She smiled back at him and it was stunning. “My name is Mari. I was just looking for you.”

“And I was hoping I might run into you again.” It wasn’t completely true since he’d forgotten about her, but had he remembered, he knew he would have looked for her too.

There was a brief moment of silence between them while they looked at each other. Georgi felt a sense of wonder and he thought he saw the same emotion on her face too, but it didn’t last long.

“I liked your costumes,” she said. “I thought they, um, fit very well with the programs.”

“Thank you! I was really happy with the design.” It was something he had been proud of, making it coordinate so well. Not only was this woman cute, but it looked like she understood things like costume choices.

He’d been leaving himself open to love for a few months now and nothing had come along. But a wild thought had just flitted through his mind. What if this was it? It probably wasn’t – what were the chances of him having a soulmate who lived in another country, really? But if she was, this might be his only chance. He took a leap of faith.

“I was just on my way to dinner with my teammates,” he said. “Would you like to come with me?”

***

The quick invitation to dinner came as a surprise, but Mari didn’t hesitate. “Sure thing,” she said. “I just dropped my brother off at the airport and I don’t have to be anywhere until tomorrow afternoon. And I am hungry.”

“Wonderful!” he said, and the biggest grin spread across his face. His phone dinged and he glanced at it. “My ride is here. Let’s go!”

As Mari followed him a small part of her realized what a dumb idea this might be, and she stopped him. “Hang on,” she said. “Where exactly are we going?”

He said the name of the restaurant and explained what kinds of food they had as they stepped outside. He opened the door of the car for her but she held up a finger. “One sec,” she said. She pulled out her phone and took a picture of the license plate. “I’m just letting my friend know where I’m going.”

He didn’t question it, just nodded and kept talking about the restaurant. She breathed a small sigh of relief that he accepted her precautions without a word. She got in and sent a quick text to Minako to let her know and to tell her she’d stay in touch.

One they were in the car, Mari picked up the conversation and kept asking questions – about who would be there, about whether he’d eaten there before, about whether they always went out to dinner after a competition. She was surprised by how easy he was to talk to.

When they walked into the restaurant, the others who’d already arrived were clearly surprised that she was with Georgi. She’d gotten so caught up in talking to him that she’d forgotten they had no idea she’d be there. Still, she knew how to be polite, and she recognized all their faces from Victor’s introductions.

She was about to say hello and reintroduce herself when she felt a warm hand on her shoulder and all her thoughts rerouted themselves to the man standing next to her.

“Everyone, this is Mari. Mari, everyone. We ran into each other and got to talking, and I invited her. I’m sure we’ll all have a lovely dinner together!” Mari was still looking at the other skaters, but she could hear the smile in his voice. She smiled too, and greeted them.

“Hey everybody. I think Victor made the rounds the other day with intros. Nice to see you again.”

The rest of the skaters greeted the pair and they sat down. Mari picked up her menu, and that was when she remembered she couldn’t read the Cyrillic on the page. She frowned at it and turned to Georgi, but before she could say anything, he leaned into her space. She caught a faint whiff of his cologne and it sent a small thrill through her body.

“Can you read Russian?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“I can read it to you,” he offered. “What would you like to hear about? Appetizers? Soups? Entrees?”

He ended up translating most of the menu before she decided. She did want to hear about what she might have, but she would have been lying to herself if she didn’t admit she liked the sound of his voice and the way he leaned in close. She even touched her hand to his arm once while asking about the soups and he gave the barest of pauses and a small smile flickered across his face. He certainly didn’t seem like he was still hung up on his ex.

***

Georgi got lost in conversation with Mari as they ate dinner. He caught a few odd looks sent in his direction from the other skaters, but he didn’t care. He knew that showing up with a virtual stranger was more than a little unusual and he knew he was being obvious about his interest in her. If this woman turned out to be his soulmate it wouldn’t matter. If she didn’t turn out to be his soulmate, he still enjoyed talking to her and sharing light touches.

After dinner, they shared a cab back to the hotel. As they stepped out of the car he realized that this was where they would part ways and he might not ever see her again. It was too late and too cold to go for a walk and the only places open were noisy bars and clubs. He just wanted to keep talking to her. He wondered if it would be presumptuous to invite her up to his room. He certainly wouldn’t mind taking her to bed but he hadn’t asked and couldn’t, not in public, so he didn’t know if that was what she wanted.

Mari muttered what sounded like a curse in Japanese. She was looking at her phone.

“Is something wrong?” Georgi asked.

“Minako—that’s my friend I’m here with—texted me ten minutes ago. She’s bringing a guy back to the room and asked me to give her 15 minutes warning. I’m going to interrupt something if I try to head up anytime soon.”

It felt like fate was answering Georgi’s question for him, so he made the offer. “You can come to my room. We can do whatever you want.”

Mari looked relieved, but she was also blushing a little. Maybe she was interested. “As long as I wouldn’t be keeping you from going to sleep. I’m sure it’s been a long day since you skated this morning.”

“No,” he said. “Truth be told, I’ve had a lot of fun spending time with you and I don’t want tonight to end.”

She smiled. “Me neither. Okay, I’ll come with you.”

***

As the door of Georgi’s room closed behind them, it felt as though there was a thrum of electricity between them. They stood for a moment just looking at each other. Mari took in his lean frame and his long, delicate fingers. She wanted to touch. She took a step towards him.

“Can I kiss you?” Georgi asked quietly.

“Yes,” Mari said. “Please.”

With a single stride, he stepped forward, touched her cheek, and pressed his lips to hers. The entirety of Mari’s mind focused down to the points where he was touching her. Mari had kissed people before, but the first kiss had never felt this easy before. It had never felt this right.

When Georgi broke the kiss, Mari’s hands wandered to his face to keep him from going too far. “I’d like to do that again.”

Georgi was already smiling, but his grin got wider. “Okay,” he said as he leaned in to kiss her once more.

She lost track of how long they stood there locked together. She let herself bask in the sensations as the kisses turned from sweet to urgent to seductive and back again. The next time they pulled apart long enough to talk, Georgi spoke.

“Is there anything else you want to do?”

“I can think of plenty of things but I’m open to suggestions as long as it involves fewer clothes.” She reached for the top button of his shirt. “What do you think?”

“I… yes. There are a lot of things I’d love to do with you right now. Shall we?” He gestured to the bed.

Mari grabbed his hand and pulled him with her.

***

Mari was tucked comfortably under Georgi’s arm while he stroked her hair. A deep affection rose in him as he watched the slow rise and fall of her chest. She wasn’t asleep yet, but she would be soon. There was no question in his mind about whether she should stay or leave and he didn’t think there was any for her either. Still, he wanted to be certain.

“Would you like to stay tonight?” he asked.

“Mmm…” she muttered sleepily. “Leaving would mean putting on clothes. And you’d have to stop touching my hair. I think I’ll stay.”

  


In the morning, Georgi was the first to wake by a few minutes. He recalled the events of the night before with pleasure and gazed softly at Mari’s sleeping form on the other side of the bed. She was so lovely and he would have believed the night before had been a dream if she weren’t beside him. He moved in closer to her and reached over to stroke her cheek. After a moment, she stirred and opened her eyes.

“Morning,” she said. She moved her head a few inches and pressed a soft kiss to Georgi’s lips.

“Good morning.”

“Thanks for letting me sleep here. And for such a wonderful night.”

“I should be the one thanking you. You’re amazing.”

A faint blush crept into her cheeks. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

He kissed her again. “Do you want to go out for breakfast?”

“I’d love to.”

***

Mari reached out to grab Georgi’s hand as they walked. A thought had been nagging at her since she got dressed. In a few hours, she was getting on a plane back to Japan. Georgi would be going back to St. Petersburg. The past twelve hours had been amazing, but they wouldn’t see each other again, not unless Yuuri and Georgi were in a competition together and Mari came. She contemplated how to bring it up or what to do about it.

“Mari,” Georgi began. “Could I get your phone number? I know you’re going to be halfway around the world by the end of the day, but I’d love to get to know you better.”

“Of course!” she said a little too eagerly. “I mean, that’s what I want too. I wish I’d met you when we had more time to spend together.”

***

Eventually, Mari had to leave. She needed to go back to her room and pack in enough time to get to the airport. They stood in Georgi’s room looking at each other fondly. He didn’t want her to go and he suspected she didn’t want to leave. He pulled her into a hug and she followed easily. He pressed a kiss to her head and they stayed like that for a few endless minutes before she stepped back.

“Well,” she said. “Goodbye. I’ll keep in touch!”

“Bye,” he said. “I hope I get to see you again sometime!”

She kissed him one final time and walked out the door.

Georgi sat down on the bed, unsure what to do with himself. He knew he had to pack up his things too, but he didn’t need to leave for another four hours. Then, his phone buzzed and he picked it up to find a text from Mari. It was just a wink and an eggplant. He smiled, and sent back a bouquet of flowers. He got up and started to pack.

  


In the next week, every free moment he had was spent texting Mari, as were a few moments when he was supposed to be working. He got yelled at by Yakov once or twice for it and tried to stop, but sometimes his phone buzzed at he picked it up reflexively to see what she might have said.

He still didn’t know if Mari was his soulmate because only time would tell, but he felt his certainty growing with each passing day. From the ease of their day spent together to the sense that he could fall in love with her, it seemed right. There was only a month left until his birthday and he was thinking of her so much that he doubted he would have the time to fall in love with someone else. Still, he’d felt certain with Anya but he’d been wrong. This time, at least, he knew that Mari had a soulmark. It would be worth the risk to commit to her. If he was wrong and it wasn’t meant to be, he’d find out soon enough. He’d made his decision, so he’d scheduled a time to call her for when they’d both be awake.

He was certain, but he grew more and more nervous as the call got closer. By the time he picked up the phone, his hands were shaking. He dialed and paced his room as it rang. She picked up on the third ring.

“Hi Georgi,” she said, and he could hear the smile in it.

All of the tension left his body at the sound of her voice. He stopped pacing. A sense of calm washed over him and a smile bloomed on his face.

“Hi Mari. I love hearing your voice.”

“I could say the same for you. You said you wanted to talk?”

“Yes.” He paused, thinking of how he wanted to say this. It was a shame she was a whole continent away, because she deserved the grandest of romantic gestures. So that’s what he told her.

  
“Mari, I haven’t been able to stop thinking of you. I want to spend every second of every day talking to you. If I could, I would surprise you on your doorstep with bouquets of flowers and a harpist to serenade you. I want to ask you to be my girlfriend. Will you?”

“Georgi, I don’t need any grand romantic gestures. I’ve loved spending every free minute talking to you. Of course I’ll be your girlfriend.”

His heart swooped with joy. “I’m so glad.”

After that, they continued on, chatting about their days and when they might next see each other. Georgi marveled at how easy it was to talk to her. They’d only known each other for a week but it felt as though it could have been a decade.

  


The next time the saw each other was at the Grand Prix Final. Georgi hadn’t made it, but he was going to see his rinkmates. It was disappointing to not even be in the competition, but knowing that he would see Mari – that he would see his girlfriend, was all worth it.

As soon as he laid eyes on her at the arena, everything else fell away. He was in the middle of a conversation with Yuri but he cut it short with a “Sorry, got to go,” and walked straight for Mari. He was dimly aware of Yuri shouting “God, you two are so revolting! You’re worse than Victor!” but he didn’t care.

Mari caught his eye just before he reached her and she took a step toward him before he swept her into a hug. They didn’t speak for a full minute, just holding each other tightly. When they finally pulled apart, Georgi clung to her hand.

“Should we find seats?” Mari asked.

Georgi followed her. They talked as they navigated the stands, each asking how their travel to Sochi had been. They finally found their seats.

“I’m so glad to see you,”Georgi said as they sat down.

“Me too,” Mari replied.

  


That night, Mari came back to his hotel room. They didn’t even speak before Mari’s lips were on his and her hands wound their way around his body. Georgi returned her kisses and touches enthusiastically. Before long they were on the bed in a sweaty tangle of limbs and Georgi was lost in sensation with his girlfriend.

***

The competition was over and they all went home far too soon for Mari’s liking. Officially she’d come to support her brother. Instead, she’d barely seen him because she was so wrapped up in Georgi. She didn’t think that either Yuuri or Victor had noticed.

She hadn’t told them or her parents that she was seeing Georgi. Her parents still didn’t know she had a soulmark. Everything was so new and she wanted to keep all that joy to herself. Still, she knew she had to tell everyone soon. She was going to visit him again for his birthday, and she couldn’t keep her soulmate a secret forever.

And she knew for certain that Georgi was her soulmate now. She’d realized she was in love shortly after she’d left Sochi. She’d been thinking about Yuuri and Victor getting married and suddenly felt herself contemplating what it would be like to be with Georgi for the rest of her life. She pictured herself at sixty, and, even though they’d known each other less than a month, she couldn’t imagine a future without him there by her side. At the thought her soulmark grew warm and tingled, and she knew.

That very evening, she bought plane tickets to Russia so she could surprise Georgi on his birthday. The tickets were expensive as it was only a couple weeks away, but it would be worth the look on his face. She might not be one for great displays of romance, but he was. She knew he’d love it if she showed up on his doorstep to wish him a happy birthday and declare her love for him.

  


Two days before she was scheduled to leave, she finally brought it up over breakfast.

“So I’m going on a trip in a couple days,” she said. Everyone looked up attentively.

“A couple days?” Her mom asked. “But you’ll miss Victor’s birthday celebration! Where are you going?”

“I know,” she said. She poked at her rice. “I’m going to Russia.”

Victor perked up. “Mari, does that mean you met--”

“Yes.” Mari cut him off and turned toward her parents. “I met my soulmate, and I’m going to surprise him for his birthday.”

Her mother squealed and her father said, “Oh, that’s wonderful!” Yuuri stared in shock for a moment before adding on his congratulations.

“Is it Georgi?” Victor asked.

“Yes,” Mari said, surprised. “How did you guess?”

“It had to be a skater, yes? You met him at a competition. Georgi’s birthday is the day after mine.”

“Another skater you said?” Her dad asked. “Can we watch some of his videos?”

Mari thought about how Georgi’s current routine was inspired by his ex and said, “Of course, dad. I’ll see if I can find the one from last year.”

  


Shortly before she was due to leave, Mari texted Yuri to enlist his help in her surprise. In exchange she promised to teach him how to cook her favorite Japanese dish, since he’d taken so much to katsudon. Yuri confirmed that Georgi would be getting home from practice when Mari landed, so she’d be able to surprise him there right away.

Yuri also met Mari at the airport and helped her find a flower shop, where he acted as translator while she bought a bouquet. He complained about it the entire time, grumbling about how he couldn’t believe he’d got himself caught up in more soulmate bullshit, but he still offered his opinion when asked what flowers Georgi would like best. When they left the shop, he also helped get her a cab and give the address to the driver. After that, he waved her off to get in his own cab. He didn’t have any desire to follow her to Georgi’s apartment, and Mari couldn’t blame him.

The closer the cab got to her destination, the more Mari’s heart raced with anticipation. When the car finally rolled to a stop along the curb, she hurried out and nearly forgot her bag in the trunk. Once she had it, she waved the cab off and walked to the front door.

***

Georgi frowned when he heard the buzzer. He had plans for a quiet evening in on his birthday so he wasn’t expecting anything. Maybe he’d forgotten something at the rink and Yakov had come by on his way home to drop it off. He stood to open the door.

It took him a moment to realize who was standing on the other side. By the time he’d processed that he was looking at his girlfriend – at his soulmate – she was already in his arms, embracing him tightly. He squeezed her back.

“I’m so happy to see you! What are you doing here?”

“Happy birthday,” she said. She pulled back and handed him a bouquet of red roses. I had to come in person so I could say this to your face.” She gazed into his eyes fondly and continued. “This past month, I’ve been so lucky to call you my boyfriend.” She sqeezed his hand. “I love you. You’re my soulmate, and you’re the best soulmate I could have asked for.”

A grin spread across her face and he matched it.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better soulmate, either,” he said. “I love you too, Mari.”


End file.
